1.3 million Haitians still living in tents months after quake

by Edward Cody - Aug. 22, 2010 12:00 AMWashington Post

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - An estimated 1.3 million Haitians - 15 percent of the population - still are living in tents or under leaky tarps more than seven months after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

The international spotlight returned to Haiti this month when hip-hop star Wyclef Jean announced his plan to run for president in November. His image as an outsider, born in Haiti but a longtime resident of New Jersey, brought a wave of optimism, especially among younger Haitians.

But Jean's disqualification Friday on the grounds that he did not meet the residency requirement left many worried that interest in Haiti again will fade despite the country's tremendous unmet needs.

The homeless are scattered in more than a thousand fetid tent cities and camps.

Officials from the estimated 800 foreign aid organizations in the Haitian capital point with pride at the relief effort they mounted after the quake, which killed more than 200,000 people, left 1.5 million homeless and reduced government institutions to rubble. They note that there was no starvation, no water-borne disease and no rioting.

Some officials say the influx of doctors, nurses and medicine from international aid organizations was so great that Haitians have better access to health care now than before the magnitude-7 temblor. But the shift from relief to reconstruction has seemed painfully slow, they acknowledge.

One reason President Rene Preval's government has been unable to move people out of the tent cities, for instance, is the country's muddled land ownership, with competing deeds and contradictory surveys left by Haiti's history of dictatorships, coups and political instability.

In addition, Haiti's trucks and earthmovers have proved insufficient to clear away rubble to allow people to return to their neighborhoods. Just 1 million of an estimated 25 million cubic meters have been cleared.

Another obstacle is Haiti's tradition of corruption. One reconstruction official has been fired for trying to steer aid money to his company. The World Bank two weeks ago granted the government $30 million, to be accompanied by $25 million from other donations, to finance anti-corruption controls in its handling of nearly $10 billion in reconstruction money pledged at a U.N. conference in March.